The assembly of an infectious virus within the cell is a complex process that requires the temporal and coordinated activities of numerous macromolecules of both viral and host origin. Understanding these interactions at the molecular level is essential to the development of effective anti-viral therapeutics and to harnessing these relatively simple systems for use as corrective gene delivery vectors and as nanomaterials. A comprehensive examination of these important processes is best accomplished by a multi-disciplinary approach that includes genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, and structural, biochemical and biophysical approaches. The FASEB Summer Research Conference on Virus Structure and Assembly has served as a key meeting for researchers in these diverse disciplines to gather and discuss cutting edge results and major breakthroughs in the field. Indeed, many new anti-viral therapies are the direct result of basic scientific investigations, which has been the emphasis of past FASEB conferences. This application requests funds to support this prestigious and important meeting. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Understanding how an infectious virus enters into and subsequently assembles in the host cell is essential to developing new anti-viral therapeutics and to developing viral systems for biotechnology applications. This application seeks support for the FASEB Summer Research Conference on Virus Structure and Assembly, a key scientific meeting that addresses diverse issues in virus entry and assembly.